No. 2 Limited Edition Cigar of the Year 2018 – Aganorsa Leaf Signature Selection

To cap off Casa Fernandez / Aganorsa Leaf’s exciting year—which began with the key hire of Terence Reilly as senior vice president of sales and marketing (technically at the tail end of 2017), and evolved to include a full brand overhaul—the company introduced a new offering at this summer’s IPCPR trade show. The cigar is known as Aganorsa Leaf Signature Selection, a premium blend that serves to familiarize consumers with the brand’s new name and modernized feel.

Several factors are at play with Aganorsa Leaf Signature Selection, helping to distinguish the blend from the former Casa Fernandez brand. Most noticeably is a clean look and feel, conveying both modern and vintage influences simultaneously. And where many of the company’s past releases had been spearheaded by the late Arsenio Ramos, the Signature Selection serves as a proper passing of the torch—offering the modern touch of Max Fernández, protégé of Ramos and son of company owner Eduardo Fernández.

The Aganorsa Leaf Signature Selection blend uses very select tobaccos within the Fernández family’s vast collection, including a Jalapa-grown Rosado Claro Corojo ’99 wrapper, a Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 binder, and all-Nicaraguan fillers. Among these fillers is the cigar’s signature ingredient—medio tiempo. This is a rare tobacco priming that grows as a spontaneous offshoot on a small percentage of tobacco plants (for the Fernández family’s crops, only around half of a percent of all harvested leaves), being known for its potent flavor and strength output. The finished product is one of the most exciting in the company’s portfolio, showing a pleasant contrast between fiery spice (including a great habanero note) and long-lasting cream. Highlight notes range from allspice, to salted butter, sourdough, tart candy, and maple-infused grains. The cigar showed a fantastic experience that was instantly recognizable as being among 2018’s best—but it’s the shockingly low price point (a median average of $9.86) that elevates the Signature Selection to an absolute must-buy recommendation… that is, if you can find one.

Aganorsa Leaf Signature Selection Breakdown

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